We’ll be here and as always eager to see where your work is going!
Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Stefano Massaron
userBrian
#120
Maybe you could make that a tax building, with barricaded spiked ramps
that encircle if defensively with angled walls. Like a paranoia building.
I don’t think a floating garden level adds to the attack feeling. Maybe add
lotsa antennas and dishes on top, and a helicopter on top.
Doublecrash
#121
Thanks for the feedback. I intend to do something very similar to what you suggested. I don’t think I’ll put any hanging garden at all, but instead I’ll try to give the building a more menacing aspect.
Back to working on it.
Stefano
erlik
#122
Envisioning barbed wire, plasma cannons and machine guns, attack drones around the building, security cameras floating around … And a big sign saying Freedom is a Lie. 
Virtuoso
#123
Just letting you know I am in the audience and waiting for updates…Ok anytime now will do…
:arteest:
adr
#125
We want updates man , i made some progress in Xsi and i can point you to some links and scripts that nuclearman gave me and some links to videos . Hope to see your updates very soon my friend
Doublecrash
#126
Thanks a lot guys for your interest! I’m really delving deep into learning materials that came with XSI, and I’ve found new, more proper ways to model the things I’ve already done, like, i.e., the pillars.
Your support is really appreciated. I’m not gone from the challenge, quite the contrary: I just want to put in use the things I’m just starting to discover.
I’ll update the thread, I hope, in a couple of days.
Thanks… really… the support and interest you show is really important for me.
Stefano
nuclearman
#127
Hi, Stefano! Sounds like you’re going through the same “OhmygoshIdidn’tknowyoucoulddothat!” period that I went through when I got my own copy of the DVD set back in late September. The next thing you’ll discover – if you haven’t already – is that a whole passel of new shaders have just become available over at XSI Base, including the Lume shaders! I’ve just been experimenting with madVelvet (a Renderman shader that was rewritten for mental ray) while downloading the latest version of EnhanceDT, which extends the capabilities of DarkTree. (BTW, as Adrian will no doubt attest, simbiontXSI is incredibly useful and makes the DarkTree repository available to all XSI users – including those who don’t currently own DarkTree.)
Best of luck implementing what you’ve been learning! I look forward to seeing the results. 
Doublecrash
#128
Hi friend! Yes, the sounds is right that, LOL… it escapes my mouth every five minutes or so, more or less…
So I simply had to stop messing around with my scene because each day I discover new and smarter ways:bounce: to do things (right now I’m focusing on modeling). To name a few, I just discovered the workings of Local Subdivision Refinement, the utter easiness of manipulating the low-res outer hull of subdivided meshes :love: and proportional modeling… it’s incredible, I know, but in the 30 days of the trial, I just never clicked on that fab “PROP” button down there :rolleyes: … and these just to name a few. So, if you take a look at my past postings, specially the pillars, you will understand immediately why I’m drawing back a bit to re-work things with a cooler approach :buttrock:
As for the shaders, I’m still watching (a bit in awe, I must admit) the Kim Aldiss rendertree series on the “Principles of XSI” DVD… but, even being a long-time user of DarkTree (of which I own the 2.0 version, not the 2.5) I never tried the XSI simbiont. I have an old version of the plug, but I heard (back when I was using C4D – btw, the C4D symbiont works like silk) that it wasn’t very well implemented into XSI.
Are you talking about a newer, improved version? If it’s so, I really have to chek out Darkling’s website.
Thanks for the info, useful as always.
Stefano
Aethyrprime
#129
XP crashes on me to much. During the course of this contest it has crashed, um 25344355 times. Thank god that 3D smax has an autosave / autorecover option or I would be doomed.
The last updates I did to my frigate caused it to crash when I did a radiosity test after rendering for about umm 2.5 hours. Hence the huge time gap between one post and the next.
I use an AMD Athalon XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, `2.2Ghz with 1GB of PC 3200 DDR SDRAM (2x 512 Dual Channel 128bit), Soyo Kt-880 Dragon 2 MB, Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 wiith 256 MB RAM, I have a 200 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM ATA-133 HD with 2 SCSI 20 GB 0+1 Raid. I have a Canopus DV-Storm RT (the new one) for my video editing but it does nothing for 3D 
Basically I have had the best of windows, but my brothers Mac eats the shit I do and crash in windows up like its childs play. Plus the OS seems idiot proof, they put everything where I would have put it, not necissarily where Bill woulda put it. Plus in the new update they have made Keywords (windows backwards things like wallpaper versus desktop image on a mac, so if you search for it, the OS will go oh a windows user, here you are looking for this. That ROCKS!!! If your saving up pennies I would save up for a machine that just works.
Doublecrash
#130
Not my intention at all to start something like “Windoz is better than Mac [or vice-versa]”… we all had tons of it in the past, don’t we? I appreciate your opinion, and I must admit that is condivided by many. Personally, I never experienced big problems in running Windows systems (and I know that this can count me among the few luckies, LOL) and I have to say that - always in my experience - XP was always very stable and steadfast. I’m running a system very similar to yours and I’m saving euros to buy a Dual Xeon XP-based workstation as soon as possible.
But I keep hearing wonders about the new G5, so if you go with that, let me know your impressions!
Stefano
nuclearman
#131
Cripes, Stefano, it’s the middle of the night in Milan! Don’t you ever get any rest???
To answer the question about simbiontXSI: yes, the old DarkTree-to-XSI simbiont had lots of problems, but this new version works quite well. It’s still a work-in-progress, so it’s not perfect (problems with displacement), but it does have a lot of flexibility and so can be used in concert with many other shaders. However, you won’t find it at the DarkTree site; rather, it’s posted at XSI Base.
Doublecrash
#132
LOL, no… I don’t sleep much… specially in these days: when I finish my work, I just can’t resist to dig a bit more into XSI. Then I begin to think that maybe someone has put on cool updates here and… I bet you know what I mean
And thanx a lot for the heads-up on the XSI simbiont, because yesterday I visited Darkling website and I found the one that I already have. I’ll go to XSIBase to get it.
Stefano
Super modelling and great concept. Congratulations